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Everyday contours and politics of infrastructure: Informal governance of electricity access in urban Ghana
This article contributes to shaping the discourse on unequal geographies of infrastructure and governance in the global South, opening up new ways of thinking through politics, practices and modalities of power. Conceptually, informality, governance and everyday urbanism are drawn on to unpack how t...
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| Format: | Default Article |
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2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/2134/17040419.v1 |
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| _version_ | 1818166262099869696 |
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| author | Ebenezer F Amankwaa Katherine V. Gough |
| author_facet | Ebenezer F Amankwaa Katherine V. Gough |
| author_sort | Ebenezer F Amankwaa (9289016) |
| collection | Figshare |
| description | This article contributes to shaping the discourse on unequal geographies of infrastructure and governance in the global South, opening up new ways of thinking through politics, practices and modalities of power. Conceptually, informality, governance and everyday urbanism are drawn on to unpack how the formal encounters the informal in ways that (re)configure infrastructure geographies and governance practices. This conceptual framing is empirically employed through an analysis of electricity access in Accra, Ghana, highlighting how residents navigate unequal electricity topographies, engage in self-help initiatives, and negotiate informal networks and formal governance practices. The spatiality of the electricity infrastructure has created inequity and opportunities for exploitation by ‘power-owners’ and ‘power-agents’ who control and manage the electricity distribution network and, in turn, privately supply power. Electricity connections are negotiated, access is monetised and illegality excused on grounds of good-neighbourliness, thereby producing and perpetuating everyday politics of ‘making do’. Community movements, everyday acts of improvisation, and incremental modifications are shown to influence the workings of formal institutions of government and shape uneven power relations and experiences of inequality. Such an understanding of how marginalised residents navigate the electricity topographies of Accra reveals a more nuanced politics of infrastructure access, which reflects the complex realities of hybridised modalities of governance and the multiple everyday dimensions of power that shape urban space. The article concludes that informality should not be recognised as failure but as a sphere of opportunity, innovation and transition. |
| format | Default Article |
| id | rr-article-17040419 |
| institution | Loughborough University |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| record_format | Figshare |
| spelling | rr-article-170404192021-07-29T00:00:00Z Everyday contours and politics of infrastructure: Informal governance of electricity access in urban Ghana Ebenezer F Amankwaa (9289016) Katherine V. Gough (1250709) Abuja Accra electricity everyday urbanism governance informal settlement informality This article contributes to shaping the discourse on unequal geographies of infrastructure and governance in the global South, opening up new ways of thinking through politics, practices and modalities of power. Conceptually, informality, governance and everyday urbanism are drawn on to unpack how the formal encounters the informal in ways that (re)configure infrastructure geographies and governance practices. This conceptual framing is empirically employed through an analysis of electricity access in Accra, Ghana, highlighting how residents navigate unequal electricity topographies, engage in self-help initiatives, and negotiate informal networks and formal governance practices. The spatiality of the electricity infrastructure has created inequity and opportunities for exploitation by ‘power-owners’ and ‘power-agents’ who control and manage the electricity distribution network and, in turn, privately supply power. Electricity connections are negotiated, access is monetised and illegality excused on grounds of good-neighbourliness, thereby producing and perpetuating everyday politics of ‘making do’. Community movements, everyday acts of improvisation, and incremental modifications are shown to influence the workings of formal institutions of government and shape uneven power relations and experiences of inequality. Such an understanding of how marginalised residents navigate the electricity topographies of Accra reveals a more nuanced politics of infrastructure access, which reflects the complex realities of hybridised modalities of governance and the multiple everyday dimensions of power that shape urban space. The article concludes that informality should not be recognised as failure but as a sphere of opportunity, innovation and transition. 2021-07-29T00:00:00Z Text Journal contribution 2134/17040419.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Everyday_contours_and_politics_of_infrastructure_Informal_governance_of_electricity_access_in_urban_Ghana/17040419 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 |
| spellingShingle | Abuja Accra electricity everyday urbanism governance informal settlement informality Ebenezer F Amankwaa Katherine V. Gough Everyday contours and politics of infrastructure: Informal governance of electricity access in urban Ghana |
| title | Everyday contours and politics of infrastructure: Informal governance of electricity access in urban Ghana |
| title_full | Everyday contours and politics of infrastructure: Informal governance of electricity access in urban Ghana |
| title_fullStr | Everyday contours and politics of infrastructure: Informal governance of electricity access in urban Ghana |
| title_full_unstemmed | Everyday contours and politics of infrastructure: Informal governance of electricity access in urban Ghana |
| title_short | Everyday contours and politics of infrastructure: Informal governance of electricity access in urban Ghana |
| title_sort | everyday contours and politics of infrastructure: informal governance of electricity access in urban ghana |
| topic | Abuja Accra electricity everyday urbanism governance informal settlement informality |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/2134/17040419.v1 |